Through The Mirror Darkly
by Becky Blue Eyes
Summary: Vanellope von Schweetz is no stranger to extraordinary danger, but when her game's update to Sugar Rush: World Circuit goes catastrophically wrong, her limits are put to the test in a world where nothing is as it seems or should be. Takes place after Gratitude and Action Replay. Various pairings.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello there once again, my very under appreciated readers!**

**This is the sequel to Action Replay, after a very long but much needed hiatus that involved me working for the first time in a hellhole of a restaurant, getting confirmed, and losing the plot and character list for this story.**

**As a result, this story has no outline, and will probably deviate into fun madness; glad you're all gonna be here for me screwing up along the way, that does my self-esteem good.**

**So without further adieu...here we go.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within this story**

* * *

_...the opening cutscene of Sugar Rush: World Circuit played, fully orchestrated music lilting from the stereo speakers, and Stan Litwak shook his head, "You got me; the new game looks great."_

_More handshaking, more pictures, and Stan got to sit down in the brand new seats. His eyes widened at the insane amount of characters and race tracks presented,all the bells and whistles firing off like a finely tuned engine, and he grinned as he started up a game, "The kids are gonna love this."_

_...and deeper within the game, Vanellope opened her eyes, and marveled—_

* * *

Vanellope's last day in her original game went out in a blast. All of the racers and NPCs buckled themselves down and watched as the landscape made mobius strips in the sky as they downloaded into the new game. Then people got sucked through the wormhole, racing faster and faster through an event horizon of glittering chrome. Choko once spoke of the tunnel that rose before her 'death' in the iTouch, and when Vanellope smacked through the end of the download stream, she wondered if this is what Choko meant.

But this was far from the Void, this was Sugar Rush: World Circuit and it was beautiful. Vanellope sat upon a throne of carved butter mint, reinforced with etched sugar plating that glowed iridescent through the towering windows. Sugar Bean Castle was bigger and better than even the version in the previous game, everything HD and glittering, everything sparkled in Vanellope's eyes.

She looked down and wiggled her gloved fingers, admiring how the thick candy cotton fabric was pre-broken to her exact grip. Her new white and mint racing suit was sleeker and more deserving of a presidential queen than a glitch-turned-princess, and with a hollow jolt, Vanellope felt a multitude of changes slot themselves neatly into her brand new psyche.

She had breasts, she had longer legs with hips to support them, she was fifteen years old and she marveled. This wasn't like the night when the racers coerced Honey into stretching them into eighteen year old models, where they were children piloting artificial adult bodies. This was a change to the recipe of Vanellope von Schweetz—she was older than before and how was she supposed to describe the sudden changes to her likes and interests, her fears and disgusts, everything that made her _her_? The memories of literally ten minutes ago were years away, viewed through rosy Coke bottles and fond embarrassment of her earlier misadventures, and she trembled at the idea of no longer being her game's pipsqueak monarch. Weren't adolescents whiny, lovestruck idiots who made Taffyta look like a symbol of well-behaved modesty? What would Ralph say about this change, or Calhoun or the princess club or her friends, and the fact that she...she _liked _this change, liked being able to look back and being able to look forward from a different point of view?

But then the outside world beckoned, and her curiosity kicked to life in her eternal engine; she had time to figure out this new maturity in between doing what she did best. The halls and race track of Sugar Bean Castle were expansive, and Vanellope already tasted the sweetness of racing in her home. Outside the vaulted ceilings and wall-length sugar spun windows was the rest of Sugar Rush, and Vanellope froze.

She knew that the game was set up so that there were six or eight racers to a circuit cluster, and that her own game had all the clusters available at launch, but _this_...a clamor rose from the horizon as everyone rushed towards their places for the select screen, the lemon drop sun illuminating hundreds of racers in a world so expansive, Vanellope didn't know where to look first. To the west, to the rest of her circuit where the Taffyberry Swamps and Peanut Butter Panhandle beckoned? To the east, where Downtown Dango City and Pockygawa District battled for dominance of the Japanese Circuit? To the south, where smoking Mount Kanake rose from the blue raspberry sea with the rest of Oceania? To Africa? The Americas? Europe? The rest of Asia? The rest of Sugar Rush itself?

Vanellope could see everything from Sugar Bean Castle and wanted to weep because she had the honor of being queen of this endless earth. But there was no time to cry, not when the player was ready to race and she had to take part in certain cutscenes. The story of the game was quite simple: a grand racing tournament that stretched around the globe, headed by young Queen Vanellope and her merry band of subjects. Choko and Marizpanne—Marizpana, she was Marzipana Docefruit now and Vanellope needed to recall everyone's names despite the roster being around 200 or so—got sent into the international circuits but that was no matter, just another excuse to race.

Her Royal Racer and her homemade Candy Kart summoned into existence at her desire to get her royal rear down to the starting lines, and she hopped into the latter; it would do her good to ground herself with a firm reminder of where she'd come from. The game was just so large now, and as she sped down the marbled road to the horizon, she wondered if her new mindset would keep herself from getting lost like a twelve year old candy brat on her first day of racing.

To her credit, she only got lost around the Double Dipped Zone that melded between Crumbelina and Adorabeezle's levels, because the Cool and Crumbly Circuit was an odd mishmash of frozen and pastry desserts. All of the game's circuits led to a central hub in the form of a massive airport like the wifi port outside of Litwak's. Vanellope looked around at the swarms of characters, no one noticing her in the rush of international spices and sweets and costumes, so many people were in their "national costume" clothing options so Vanellope could see just how different the Thai racers were to the Austrian, the Polynesian to the Columbian, the Ethiopian to the Sugar Rushian.

She spotted King Candy and remembered that he was the other racer sharing the Sugar Bean Castle level; each level had two racers, and she smiled at the idea of racing ol' King Gramps on the next-gen speedway. Sidestepping a group of North American racers unabashedly changing into their racing suits in the middle of the chaos, she followed the signs towards the Triple Trouble Circuit loading bay.

Vanellope, Taffyta, Rancis, King Candy and two new racers—Seronade Lemontwist and Reina Scattercup—made up this circuit, and she was excited to meet and greet the newbies; would they be friendly and down to hang out, or more focused on competition? In a corner by the Japanese loading bay, she spotted Choko; Choko got a design upgrade, her bun bigger than ever and covered in cute little hair clips and her national costume being a frilly wa-lolita kimono. And she was older too, a plump thirteen year old speaking Japanese at the speed of light to her white-haired companion who Vanellope registered as Odango Mochi-Mochi, one of Choko's early concept designs who finally got her own chance to play.

All six of the gathered teens were squealing and gesturing and hugging, and Vanellope grinned behind her glove. Was that how she looked with King Candy and Ralph? Shaking her head at her past self, she continued on to her loading bay, and spied Taffyta shooting the spearmint with the rest of their circuit mates. Taffyta's racing scarf was perfectly oversized, Rancis's hair curl was more flamboyant than ever, and the two new racers were laughing and joking with the rest of them without the awkward new candy smell. They were perfect, her team was ready to go and Vanellope—

Vanellope watched as another Vanellope laughed at Seronade's joke, and what was going on? The other Vanellope looked just like her, right down to the minty tiara and scuff on her right shoe toe, and Vanellope felt her stomach drop as it had with Virus-Van. Did something go wrong in the downloading process? Was there supposed to be doubles of the racers? Should she go talk to Choko about this, she was right down the hall and the little code master surely knew better than Vanellope's frazzled self.

The other Vanellope spotted her, and as gracefully as a woman twice her senior, she bowed away from the loading bay without drawing attention to the shocked monarch standing struck in the doorway. But once Reina was teasing Rancis, the other Vanellope grabbed Vanellope and dragged her further down the hall to the "maintenance only closet door"/one of the hidden niches to access the game's inner coding.

Vanellope was silent as her doppelganger pulled her farther away from the cheerful chaos of the hub down narrower and darker corridors, as her mind was still processing the fact that there were two Vanellopes and her gut was screaming at her that this was horribly wrong. But when they marched through a room that only bore a wall length mirror, Vanellope struggled, "L-Let me go! What is—who are you?!"

The other girl swung Vanellope against the mirror and the material felt like thick jello, sickly molding along her back. Dark hazel eyes bored into their twin's, lacking any cheer as the other girl simpered, "_I'm _Vanellope von Schweetz, and it's time to take out the trash."

Vanellope choked out a scream as the other Vanellope charged and rammed nto her stomach; she sank through the mirror and her throat closed up as the thick mirror gloss swallowed Vanellope from the chin down. It was cold, wherever the mirror opened up to, and Vanellope heard a vague "Only once more" from around the rushing in her ears before the other Vanellope reached out and pressed Vanellope paralyzed head through the mirror.

Vanellope fell, and this time it was just like the tunnel from Choko's story, because the light at the end of this tunnel burned Vanellope's code until the zeroes and ones froze and shattered.

* * *

Vanellope woke back up in the hub, ignored by the masses of racers assembling in their loading bays. She was uninjured, despite the deeply set cold in her wire frame, and looking around, it was as if the entire incident had never happened. King Candy came out from a side corridor and quickly helped Vanellope to her feet with a worried, "Did thomeone knock you down, Vannie? Where'th your choker?"

"U-Uhh..." And now she was half as eloquent than her twelve year old self; Vanellope suppressed a decidedly teenage tantrum at the changes she didn't like in herself and certainly around her. "There was a—"

The game hummed into proper life and King Candy exclaimed with a flick of a large ring pop, "We're late for the thelect thzcreen! Quickly now, before the player notithes thomething!"

King Candy dragged Vanellope for a frantic moment before she shook off the offending arm and ran on her own prerogative. Screw the freaky Other Vanellope and the disgusting mirror that may or may not have been a fever dream brought on by the sugar sparkles of the new game, Vanellope was the Queen and she had a job to do!

But then right as she was to cross into the threshold of the loading bay, someone grabbed her again. "Again with the grabby hands!" she yelled as she swung around, "Who—"

"Stay quiet if you wish to live."

Vanellope's eyes widened as she watched yet another Vanellope enter the loading bay, her arm gripped by a...not quite Vanellope. She glitched at the overload of clones and thank mod she got to keep her special spark from the last game, because nothing else was familiar and safe in this brave new world. The not Vanellope flinched but kept her grip on the shift pixels, and Vanellope wished she could be like Honey the Cat and freeze people with her glitching.

All of the loading screen doors in the hub locked as everyone got ready for the day, and suddenly the entire environment seemed to dull with the lack of people present. The graphics degenerated from next-gen to 64-bit era, the colors sickly and near-monochrome, and Vanellope felt the chill rise up from her wire frame to permeate the entire environment. It was too much, between this and the clones and the not Vanellope's creepiness, and she demanded as she yanked her arm away, "What the milk dudded hell is going on around here?!"

The not Vanellope stared and her eyes were slowly swirling mints, "I will say this only once more: stay quiet if you wish to live."

Vanellope was glad that she was fifteen now; her twelve year old self would've screamed in rage at that, but now she knew how to bite her tongue and simply wish a very silent death on every extra Vanellope haunting this game.

* * *

The other led Vanellope back into Sugar Rush from the hub, and she watched poorly animated flowers pop into terrible resolution as they approached and recede back into nothingness as they traveled onwards. The glitter was long gone, and the circuits were encased in murky bubbles under a frozen black sky; how could Vanellope had ever thought this game was beautiful? It had been, but then the Other Vanellope had...Vanellope startled as the not Vanellope whispered, "How did you end up in here?"

Vanellope spat back, "Everything was fine until my evil twin appeared out of nowhere and pushed me through a mirror into this fungeon of a game! Where am I, is this really World Circuit? And who are you, and the _other_ other Vanellope?!"

The other girl considered Vanellope with her swirling mint eyes, and Vanellope recoiled. Their features were very similar, but just off enough to make her palms sweat and her eyes skitter for more signs of difference to separate herself from the not quite clone. Thankfully, their hair was much different; Vanellope's hair was in her tiara and bun much like from her childhood, while the other's had her hair up in a high ponytail through her tiny crown. And their clothes were different saving the ankle boots, although Vanellope wondered if the pinched waistcoat dress, white paper cup petticoat skirt and striped leggings were her national costume outfit.

The choker around the other's neck wasn't on Vanellope though, and she narrowed her eyes, "King Gramps mentioned a choker earlier. But I'm not supposed to have one, don't I?"

The other smiled, "Smart girl." A dainty hand traced along the choker's peppermint pendant, "So you picked out the difference...yes, only a mirror Vanellope would own this choker, just as only a mirror King Candy would own a ring pop, and a thousand other trinkets for the thousand other mirrors."

Vanellope's mind blanked. "Mirror?"

Yet another rosy Coke bottle memory resurfaced, back when Pollipop had short hair and Choko had green eyes and their world was rotting beneath their feet. Vanellope had paid little mind to the cluster of coding that created the mirrors, only caring when Mirror Vanellope showed her how to defeat Virus-Van and save the day. She never did figure out where those dozens of mirror images came from, nor what happened to deleted player-made carts or a thousand other little promises that got lost throughout the year. But now she remembered a blank sky and murky mirrors holding Vanellopes that seemed to hold all the answers, and she exhaled in a cold rush, "I'm in the mirror."

The other nodded and the choker seemed to glow in the frozen air. "You're in the mirror, and you are in great danger here." She turned to survey the sickly lights thrumming in the hub's wiring, "The "other other" Vanellope is the Mirror Vanellope of this console, memories downloaded from the last—you've met her before, yes? She mentioned how fun it should be, now that we are in one game... but she refused to accept that this would happen."

"What would happen?"

The other led Vanellope further away from the hub, towards a useless space between the Cool and Crumbly and the Flavor Rush Circuits. "That your "evil twin" would usurp you once again, and yet another race to the death would start."

Vanellope wrinkled her nose at the cryptic talk, demanding concrete answers to build her new world upon. "Once again? What are you...and first of all, who are _you_, if there's my Mirror Vanellope and the...Other Van, running around?" She motioned with impatient hands, "You're not another mirror, are you? Cuz there were a bunch back when Virus-Van destroyed my game, but _this_ and _you_ don't feel the same at all." Vanellope winced a bit at how bratty that came out; she expected Taffyta or Sour Apple (wasn't her name Emmareld Sourblossom now? The roster list scrambled her thoughts for a brief, freezing second) or even Bubblebetty to be the gleefully mean teen, not herself.

"...Nell." Nell smiled anyway with her spiral eyes, "That's a good of a name as any, I suppose." And Vanellope felt some of the chill go away, replaced by the slightly uncomfortable warmth of the choker radiating into the stillness of the mirror world. A wind picked up around their ankles, and Nell hissed, "The race is already starting?"

"Well, I got shoved into here right as the player started up a game, so yes?" Vanellope shivered as the wind rose up to her waist, because everything else was absolutely still. Not even the flowers moved in the breeze, and the mirror world was so wrong to her tongue, her eyes, her coding, that she desired nothing but to get back to the other side. Back to Ralph for that matter, he would know what to say to make the growing terror in her throat go away.

The wind caught an edge of whipped cream flavoring, and Nell's voice was a dagger, "You need to run right now. Run and don't stop until the arcade day ends and I come find you." There was music now, lilting and light and nothing was more terrifying. "Talk to and be seen by one, not even the mirrors of useless NPCs, because if anyone else but myself or Mirror Vanna finds you, _she_ will find you, and there will be nothing we can do to save you."

Vanellope shuddered blue pixels at the finality of her words, and looked around. "W-Where should I go?"

"Hello!"

She whipped around to see a black-haired girl around her age waving at her from the other end of the useless space. Her eyes were large and bright, her sweet voice ringing against the wind, "What's your name?"

"RUN AWAY FROM HERE!"

Nell's unholy shriek set Vanellope off, stumbling and terrified against a wind that reeked of rotten cool whip and molding cookies and faulted, unwanted glitching that made Vanellope wonder if her nose was bleeding from the Skrillex-patented pounding in her skull and the ozone searing her mouth. Her legs couldn't move fast enough to spare her from hearing the sound of ripping flesh and scattering mints and whatever just happened to Nell; it was wetter than she expected.

* * *

Vanellope found a downgraded version of her Candy Kart during her desperate flee, and kicked it into high gear away from this newest girl. So many black-haired girls in black and mint, Vanellope wanted nothing more than to change her hair back into red pigtails and wear poofy purple parachute pants. She could cite teenage rebellion or monarchical authority, anything to get a grip on herself, her new game and the mirror hell she was hopelessly lost in.

Swerving between the domes of the North America-Coastal and South American Expansion Circuits, she was relieved to find the air stale and still, no hint of wind or cookies and cream or any noise beyond her own panting. Swallowing past a dry and aching throat, she remembered the pull of the mirror and curled around her freezing heart. She needed out, she needed Mirror Vanellope to save the day again, she needed her friends back.

She shivered, and pulled herself back together. She needed all of those things and a bucket of butter mints, but she had the whole day on her own; World Circuit got installed before opening hours and gamers were bound to half-riot over the new game until closing hours. And it wasn't as if she'd never survived a dim wasteland with a psycho out for her blood or anything, either.

But this time, she didn't have time to scream and throw up and hide like she did the last time, and she wiped her eyes dry and adjusted her racing scarf. It was time to test drive this downgraded cart, this ugly new game, and this wishy-washy trap called being fifteen years old.

Vanellope swore she felt her hair rustle, and decided to force her way through the NA-C Circuit's bubble; she'd wanted to explore earlier, and if these black-haired not real Vanellopes wanted to come and sour Queen Vanellope von Schweetz, President of Sugar Rush's monkey milk, they were going to have to race her for it.

* * *

**You read that correctly: there are around 200 playable characters in the "full" version of Sugar Rush: World Circuit. And yes, I will touch upon all of them, but not right now.**

**Right now, I want to touch upon Vanellope, and Vanellope, and Vanellope, and Vanellope, and the girl who certainly looks like Vanellope. And they're all 15 year old Vanellopes, which is a very fun age to suffer life threatening experiences in.**

**This story will be longer chapter-wise than Gratitude andmost of Li16F but much shorter than Action Replay, since brevity is the soul of wit or some other wise advice that I never actually follow through with.**

**If there's anything confusing about the names, or the concepts,or anything else, just shoot me a PM and I'll explain it to the best of not spoiling stuff for you.**

**It's good to be writing about Vanellope again, I have such big plans for her :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**And we are back! I'm writing half of this in the airport terminal/on the plane back to California and the other half back with my cats back home; it was a good summer break, hard and honest work, and while I'm gonna be depresso over leaving my family and coworkers behind, I'm really missing home :D**

**And what better way to celebrate that than another TTMD chapter?**

**Disclaimer: Do I seriously look like I own the copyrighted material? Really?**

* * *

_...Vanellope shivered, and pulled herself back together. She needed all of those things and a bucket of butter mints, but she had the whole day on her own; World Circuit got installed before opening hours and gamers were bound to half-riot over the new game until closing hours. And it wasn't as if she'd never survived a dim wasteland with a psycho out for her blood or anything, either._

_But this time, she didn't have time to scream and throw up and hide like she did the last time, and she wiped her eyes dry and adjusted her racing scarf. It was time to test drive this downgraded cart, this ugly new game, and this wishy-washy trap called being fifteen years old._

_Vanellope swore she felt her hair rustle, and decided to force her way through the NA-C Circuit's bubble; she'd wanted to explore earlier, and if these black haired girls wanted to come and sour Queen Vanellope von Schweetz, President of Sugar Rush's monkey milk, they were going to have to race her for it—_

* * *

Within the murky bubble, Vanellope's eyes adjusted to suddenly being in HD again. The sugar sparkles and sunshine were back to full glory, and she swerved across a golden brown sugar beach in shock. This was the Paradice Cream Pier, the Disneyfied race track tumbling through an oceanside amusement park to the thrill of beach lovers and soft serve aficionados, and Vanellope's heart froze at the terror of never being back to someplace she could 100% be safe in.

Shaking her head free of the chill, she trekked across the beach and parked in a tangle of cabanas and fruit smoothie stands. This track belonged to Aerielle Softswirl and Pommy Smootherlain, and while she'd love to meet the two, she swore she could smell cookies and cream on the summertime air and she was certain that neither of the two had that for a default flavor. The two racers in question sped by and kicked up pomegranate scented sand, quickly chased by an assortment of international racers and Taffyta. Taffyta looked so gleeful, shooting taffy bombs at her competitors from her upgraded Pink Lightning, and jealousy gripped at Vanellope until she forced with down with all the grace her queenly body possessed.

NPCs cheered from their stands and wow, this looked no different than the game Vanellope had awoken in. Was she going crazy? Vanellope dared to get out of her cart and slink between shadows of the cabanas to look upon the NPCs closely. They were ice cream based, cheesecake based, Taffyta's own strawberry taffy lollipop people and—

Vanellope narrowed her eyes because they flickered. In fact, they were almost gray-tone in comparison to Aerielle and Pommy's screaming fans, like the time attack ghosts Vanellope would train against. The taffy people faded out during a fan wave and a chill rose up in Vanellope's throat. "That's right," she exhaled as she hid once again from the game camera's view, "I'm the ghost now, so they're the ones who look..." Incomplete, inconsequential, immaterial to the long run when compared to the rest of the vibrant colors. "...wrong."

They were wrong because she was on the wrong side of the mirror and that wasn't fair. Gritting her teeth, she stalked back to her cart to find a new hiding place, and her breath misted as she spotted the black haired psycho sitting in her cart. From afar she was adorable, singing "I'm in the queen's cart, vroom vroom!" with her large dark eyes and her delicate hands wrapped around the steering wheel. But then the music glitched from the California-certified BGM to something too cutesy and sinister to be allowed, and Vanellope hightailed it just as the black haired girl shot forward.

And wreck it all, but this was the second time someone chased Vanellope down in her own cart!

Ducking between the scenery and risking exposure to the camera, Vanellope headed to where she instinctively knew where any and all back up carts would be for the NA-C circuit. She just knew that Aerielle had a special edition upgrade cart that would be unlocked if she won the World Circuit Cup 5 times, Vanellope didn't even know where that information came from but it was true.

She came upon Aerielle's little condo by the edge of Sugarland Park and kicked in the door. That was rude beyond all belief but the psycho was just on the edge of her peripheral and Vanellope didn't want to know why the scent of iron was infusing itself in the air. But she found what she needed, a ice cream cone variation cart that was built for sugar boosts, and just as the psycho crashed through the hut's door, Vanellope kicked the cart into gear.

One of the level's alternate tracks curved just ahead, and Vanellope shivered with delight as the cart sped over the perfectly paved pomegranate pathway. And the level was beautiful, everything fruit-toned and vibrant as NPCs screamed on their thrill rides of choice. Memories of sneaking into NintendoLand with Ralph made Vanellope's heart clench, but the chill of the psycho's stolen cart roaring behind her kept Vanellope on track.

Up ahead was the main pier, the crowd of active racers making loops on the roller coaster. Knowing that the camera's eye would spell suspicion and death, Vanellope avoided the Soft Serve Screamer and skidded off the road towards the Smoothshine Wheel. The boardwalk groaned beneath 1st place, and she hoped that she wasn't visible on the race roster.

A cherry gondola was ready for boarding and Vanellope rocked the entire wheel with the force of her entry. But as the gondola rose she could see the psycho park down below and scour the pier on foot, and Vanellope sighed in relief. The crowd of racers sped by and Vanellope bit down a vindictive smile when the psycho was nearly mowed down by a blue-skinned international character. What's her face, Vanellope glitched as she tried to recall the racer's name. It was...Semolinda something other, and she broke character to look back at her almost victim but then Taffyta took first place again and Vanellope and her not quite clone were once again forgotten.

The psycho seemed so lost and helpless down there, fanning herself as her Oreo hat seemed to wilt under the summer sun, and Vanellope almost forgot why she was hiding from her. But then the wheel's sub-melody glitched into a cutesy nightmare as the psycho looked up and smiled too widely for her face. "I found you!"

Vanellope make sure that the camera was facing far away, and then gunned her cart. She shrieked as her cart didn't land on the intended cluster of umbrella but flat on the pier, and the boards gave way to a shockingly cold sea. Vanellope gagged on blue raspberry salt and couldn't figure out how to tear off the darn seat belt, until a plump little cheek and milky white teeth did it for her. A hot crunch and she was free, her forearm and hip gouged as the psycho decided to eat Vanellope. Vanellope brought up her legs and kicked away from the cart, and broke through the surface of the waves with a scream.

She had only a second to appreciate the sun on her face before the other girl dragged her back down again, getting another bite on the inside of her left knee. Oh Tobikomi above, Vanellope didn't want to die like this, to be eaten by a girl whose name she didn't even know, not before she got to life this new life and tell Ralph and Nilla Beanson and the princesses and the Codebusters sand her people goodbye—

Vanellope grappled with the psycho, heard pounding and triggering a wicked serving knife to poof into existence into the other girl's eye. The psycho convulsed and released Vanellope as the sea flooded with bitter cream, and the queen swam back to shore on the crest of a frothing white wave. Her left leg nearly collapsed under her own weight but she hobbled back to the pier and back to her own cart, hoping that Aerielle would forgive her fellow racer for losing her cart at the bottom of the pier.

Her cart stank of ozone and vanilla extract was gushing all over the cookie carpets, but Vanellope took it in stride as she drove away from the pier and back onto the mainland. With a ripple of glitched coding her injuries half-healed—such a wonderful discovery from the Bad Times, how her glitch could be of service for once—and she found an empty patch in the scenery to hide in. From her hiding hole she watched Taffyta win the race, the gamer surely pleased that he managed to beat second-place Semolinda and the home court characters. Taffyta accepted her gold coin, the gamer continued to the next level in the NA-C circuit, and the world lost its sparkle again.

With the disappearance of the taffy racers went the HD, the blue sky, the sun and the trees and the rides into monochrome polygon cardboard. Half of the mirror racers went to the next level while half lingered, and Semolinda looked around, "Seal oli veel üks tüdruk täna?"

Vanellope had no idea what that meant, but the cheesecake racer (Sernikai? It was Sernikai, right? She swore she knew this just fifteen minutes ago) only laughed, "Ci docierane nam zbyt wiele razy. Ci mylić z Pani Nona dla kogoś innego." Then Semolinda and Sernikai laughed as another racer—that was Nona, Nona...her name was now just Nona—smacked them upside the heads. They walked past Vanellope into another part of the dismal mirror world and Vanellope couldn't understand what they found so fun about this sham of an environment.

And they looked so happy, sharing jokes that Vanellope couldn't understand and maybe won't ever get to understand because she was bleeding precious vanilla into a hostile world and who knew, maybe the knife was poisoned. Vanellope was left alone and she wanted to cry again because her body ached and she didn't know where to go now.

But then she smelled cookies in the stifled air and she drove off, because driving while crying was a skill set that all fifteen year olds knew.

* * *

Vanellope found herself between the South American and South American Expansion Circuits, staring up at the void and resisting the urge to go full emo. Skrillex was once an emo princess, he joked that all of the Sugar Rush kids would become emo princesses one day and that if so, he'd take them out to buy black on black. And while black reminded Vanellope of dark chocolate and black licorice, which were totally not her base flavorings, she appreciated the sentiment.

The day was a blur of dodging the psycho and getting reminders that life was continuing on without her and sweet mother of monkey milk, did anyone notice that there was an importer in her place? The Other Vanellope was far too sickly sweet and pure evil to pass off as the real Vanellope, right? At least Choko or Nilla would know, they knew Vanellope's coding best, and Vanellope wondered if the imposter would notice that too and try to off her former and current secretaries.

If that happened, Vanellope swore as her gloved strained against her clenched fists, she was going to put the Other's head on a pike and race through all the levels in this blasted game with a brand new hood ornament. The rage made her ignition-happy and she sped off, making figure eights around murky domes and playing with the congealing blood on her hip. It smelled too sweet in the empty air and Vanellope worried that now she wouldn't be able to catch cookies and cream on her tongue.

Her leg spasmed and Vanellope wanted to yell but that would just make the psycho come back for seconds. Instead she gunned it for the empty space back in the Sugar Rush Circuits to see if Nell had actually died or not. It certainly sounded like a game over, Vanellope didn't want to know what that wet sound meant but the memory of the psycho biting a chunk out of her arm gave her queasy ideas.

In the empty space there was nothing, not even the scattered mints, and Vanellope was so disgusted by everything that she drove through the empty space towards the stupid empty horizon. And it was all the same, the mirror world was hideous and freezing cold and Vanellope's heart burned with every sub-zero moment. The blood seemed to crystallize as Vanellope approached some sort of event horizon where the boundaries bent upon themselves into a matted curve. Air rushed between her wheels and Vanellope smelled the end of the world as it caressed her hair and ears.

Vanellope braked so that she wouldn't careen over the edge of a sudden bank, and at the bottom of the cliff was a turbulent black sea. Unlike Paradice Cream Pier's ocean, this one tasted ancient, and Vanellope shuddered until her blood froze creamy white against her ripped uniform and a pixellated cloud of frost left her lips.

One wave crashed against the cliff and the entire event horizon shook, and Vanellope stumbled backwards. But the sea pulled on her from deep within her coding, and she peered back over the edge. The sea lit up with diamond data on the wave crests before being sucked down into the primordial black, and Vanellope wanted to drop something in to see what would happen.

"Be careful; what goes in there never comes out."

Vanellope squeaked and whipped around to see Nell, her minty eyes spiraling and very much not eaten and digested by a psychopath. Nell smiled and took out a mint candy from her waistcoat dress pocket, before throwing it over the edge. The mint fell for far longer than the drop appeared before being swallowed in a flash of blue, and Vanellope flinched as the mint became no more. "What is that?"

"That is the Data Sea, one of the most precious parts of this game's mirror." Nell paused, eyes flickering over Vanellope's bum leg and frozen arm and hip, before squeezing her peppermint pendant. Vanellope hissed as an uncomfortable wave of heat rose up from her programming core, but then her injuries were healed and the blood melted away, some of it dripping to die in the sea.

Vanellope rubbed her hip to make sure the mesh was healed, before giving Nell an admittedly impressive side eye, "And I don't suppose that's all you're going to tell me about it?"

Nell laughed and it sounded weird, since her expression didn't change. "No, it's best for non-mirrors to be ignorant of the mirror's inner workings. Think too hard about it and you just might throw yourself into the Sea."

Vanellope flinched at the idea of being swallowed by the endless sea. Shaking her head free of freezing cobwebs, she pointed a finger, "Ok lady, we need to have a sit down. Not just a tea party but a real talk, because that psycho took a few bites out of me today like I was the main course and she's currently on her way for seconds."

"...yes, I suppose we do." Nell brushed pixels from her sleeves and the sea and the pendant around her neck suddenly went supernova. Vanellope covered her eyes but the technicolor aurora burned her eyes anyway and that was it, black was best and she wanted to dye all of her eyesore queen gowns into shades of goth. The glow went away and Nell shook Vanellope's arm, "We have a lot to discuss and not a lot of time, because we need to get you on the other side of the mirror immediately."

"W-Why?" And Vanellope's head was still aching with the burst of color and recession back into mirror-palette, because the mirror world seemed just a bit more tolerable in the absence of such light.

Nell's face was as smooth as dinner china, and her voice just as flat. "What are the full names of the Original 16 Racers?"

Vanellope furrowed her brows because that was a stupid question. She rattled them off, waxing eloquently over Taffyta's odd-tasting surname, and crossed her arms, "What was that supposed to prove?"

"That your racer recognition is failing." Nell counted on her fingers, "Emmareld Sourblossom is no longer Minty Zaki, Minty Fondantine is a mix of Minty Candlezaki and her European Cakelyn Fondantine naming, the former recolors have their own unique personas, and you forgot that Choko Pockystix exists."

"...w-what?"

Nell sighed as Vanellope sank to her knees, "It means that your physical memory is failing due to you being outside of your intended game environment. It means that your connection to Mirror Vanna's memory recovery has been severed. It means that the Other Vanellope can now access your memory banks and become you.

"And," the cold finality of her voice made Vanellope's heart freeze over, "it means that you are becoming a mirror program, and when _she_ devours a mirror program, they do _not_ regenerate."

* * *

S**eal oli veel üks tüdruk täna?-Google Translate Estonian for "There was another girl today?"**

**Ty docierane nam zbyt wiele razy. Ty mylić z Pani Nona dla kogoś innego.-Google Translate Polish for "You lapped us too many times. You confused Ms. Nona with someone else."**

**And here we are! My track record for updating consistently is as shameful as ever! (I point fingers at scholarship applications and breaking up with my boyfriend of over two years, it's been a hectic time)**

**I promise that the next few chapters will get better, since this was a "blank" chapter from my half-remembered story outline. But I got to introduce some more characters, touch upon important concepts, and ponder what to call the Not Vanellope since she's not just a psycho, she's a looooooot more than that**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pathetically tiny chapterlets, and hopefully I'll get another one done because school starts up October 2!**


	3. Chapter 3

**And welcome back once again, my woefully under-appreciated readers! Today Vanellope finally has a sit down with Nell, I touch upon stuff that I should've gone over in Action Replay, and stuff may or may not advance in the actual plot!**

**Seriously, Vanellope and Nell just talk; I think it's super interesting, but it's actually super boring lol**

**Disclaimer: I have no claim to the copyrighted materials presented within this story; please do not sue, I have nothing of value since I am a poor college student**

* * *

"So if I stay here any longer, I won't be able to go back, huh?"

"That's mostly correct."

Vanellope kicked her legs over the blank, wondering if maybe she and Nell should hold this sit down somewhere less ancient and fatal. But as it stood, the psycho wasn't around to make them leave the event horizon, and Vanellope appreciated the freezing thrill of slipping off the edge and becoming scattered code in the Sea. Maybe that was her teenage hysteria bubbling up, but whatever.

Nell untangled a lock of hair from her little crown and Vanellope asked, "So are you wearing my other default costume? Not for nothing, but we don't really look alike."

"We don't," Nell said,"because our model went through several design changes in the making of this game. This is what your "national costume" started off as, but down the line it changed into the one the Other is currently wearing."

"You can see her?"

"Somewhat," Nell played with her pendant, the little peppermint radiating sickly warmth back to Vanellope's fingers. "I am as much of a mirror program as Mirror Vanna is, so I can feel her through the other side of the mirror. Not exactly though, but I know she's alive and well, wearing her queen outfit, and taking tea with the rest of the Triple Threat Circuit racers."

Vanellope winced, the idea of Taffyta and Rancis unknowingly betraying Vanellope for the Other hurting her healed hip. "C-Can't you do something? How am I supposed to get back?"

Nell hummed, staring off into the Sea. "That's a question with a lot of loaded backstory...but then again, you said that you wanted all the answers, correct?"

Vanellope met the swirling mint gaze, and she steeled herself, "Tell me everything."

The not quite doppelganger, not quite ally smiled, and she began, "I'm not sure if it stands for all of the World Circuit arcade machines, but this console in particular was activated 17 times in order to assure that the special gaming parameters were met. The testers only raced with Vanellope, so the other racers' minds, memories and emotions were left blank until the download.

"This meant that for everyone else but you, there was no cognitive conflict between upgrades. Mirror Vanna recalled that you know of someone who has been through this situation before?"

Vanellope nodded, "One of my Codebusters, Honey, her boyfriend/best friend/pretty much soulmate integrated from Sega Sonic Arcade into Sonic the Fighters once it was plugged in."

"Because he entered the game right at plug in, he was melded and essentially upgraded into the new role. Granted, because the game mechanics of each game were different, he suffered some internal conflict, yes?"

At Vanellope's nod, Nell continued, "Had he entered any time later, allowing the blank slate Sonic to materialize into an individual, two things could have happened: he could have been rejected from the melding and continued to be homeless, probably dooming your friend Honey in the first place...or he could have melded with the new Sonic anyway.

"Our game was turned on 17 times, and for long enough periods that essentially, 17 Vanellopes came into existence. But with every upgrade, those Vanellopes were intended to be melded into the next for continuous development—on our side of the screen, this would have allowed Mirror Vanna to recalibrate the Vanellope role and make sure everything was running nice and smoothly."

Vanellope butted in, "So wait, 17 individual Vanellopes? All with different minds and personalities and..." Souls?

Nell shrugged, "The way that history went, yes. It wasn't supposed to—you'll understand better when Mirror Vanna explains this—but as it stands, there were 17 Vanellopes. The Other that currently took your place was the first in line, and I was the second."

The girl looked down at her hands, and her calm voice operator voice took a softer edge, "I think she was convinced that she was going to die, or be erased. Only that kind of terror could drive someone to do such an evil act..." Nell cocked her head, "Remember the empty space back by the Sugar Rush circuits?"

Taken back by this change, Vanellope slowly nodded, "By the Cool and Crumbly Circuit, right?"

"The Cool and Crumbly Circuit is rather oddly designed, yes? Adorabeezle Winterpop, Crumbelina DiCaramello, Lemonetta Creameringue, Minty Candlezaki, and the new racers Iceabel Doublefudge, Royalotte Biscake, Keyston Limerick, and Velvetina Littlecup race in there. Half are pastries, half are ice cream, and the Double Dipped Zone between Adorabeezle and Crumbelina's tracks is particularly dangerous due to conflicting textures.

"It's also one of the few circuits to have eight racers instead of six; this quirk is shared with a few other international circuits, and Sugar Rush's own Flavor Rush Circuit, which is admittedly better put together, although Bubbebetty Gummipop and the twins Pepper and Winter Doublemint don't really mix perfectly with the other, more caffeinated racers."

Vanellope raised her eyebrows, "Where are you going with this?"

"What I'm saying is that the empty spot between those two circuits is where the dummied out Bite Sized Battle Circuit was supposed to go." Nell counted on her gloved fingers, "It was a 6 racer set with Crumbelina, Royalotte, Bubblebetty, Pepper and Winter, and the racers Oreanne Wonderfilled and Chip Sailcrunch."

This should have been where Vanellope made the connecting epiphany, but there was just so much information in her already overloading brain that she just sort of shrugged, "And this is important because?"

Nell snorted, "Fifteen suits you. But regardless, this is important because the agreement between Tobikomi and Nabisco fell through during the first upgrade—when the Other was being used—and Oreanne and Chip weren't allowed to be used; Chip wasn't even completed yet when they pulled the plug.

"It left Oreanne as a dummied out shadow of a character in the empty space where her circuit was, her personality scrambled and fried due to her mirror being deleted with the deletion."

Vanellope shuddered because Honey once was a shadow of a character; by the grace of Sonic the Fighters she was viable and so was her mirror...Vanellope widened her eyes, "Oreanne is the psycho that's been chasing me, isn't she?"

Nell fixed one of Vanellope's candy barrettes, "The Other found her when she did A Very Bad Thing, and warped her mind so that she became the mindless cannibal that the Other uses as her attack dog. It's just so easy," Nell's voice was calm and quiet and so filled with razor blade rage that Vanellope's heart bled, "to push the next Vanellope through a mirror when she's blinded by the HD sparkles. I was a fool for not pushing back, but it was so sudden, and I didn't expect another Vanellope to appear from the shadows and lock me behind the mirror."

Vanellope took Nell's hand, "She did this to you too?"

Nell smiled, "It was so long ago, I don't remember what it feels like to not be a mirror program. But I do know what it's like to be hunted down by Oreanne...and I know what it's like to watch her eat my successors. All fourteen of them I tried to save, and all fourteen of them were...well, you remember how Oreanne attacked you."

Vanellope paled and Nell gazed out over the Sea, "The Other Vanellope is a sadist. If she just wanted to get rid of us, she would open a mirror directly over the Data Sea and drop us in. No fuss, no muss, no risk of us getting out and exposing her lies. But she hates us enough to want us to be hunted down and devoured by the poor little beta girl she turned into an accessory for murder."

"W-Why?"

Nell was quiet, "Because she was afraid to die."

Vanellope hugged her knees to her chest, inhaling the vanilla extract still staining her suit. She was afraid to die in Paradice Cream Pier, afraid enough to summon a serving knife from the game's inventory and stab Oreanne in the eye and leave her to rot in the waves. Had they been outside World Circuit, Oreanne would have died and Vanellope would've been a murderer and this is different than what's happening, right? Because the Other killed 14 other Vanellopes over something that wasn't an issue, right?

"I'm not sure," Nell drew out her words slowly, a blunt knife from an eye socket, "if melding with a preexisting character would kill the one being "overwritten", or if they would become one, or whatever else. Mirror Vanna would know, and she's on her way now to explain more things better than I can, and get you on the right side of the mirror."

Vanellope felt herself nod, head aching from bobblehead agreements. The mirror world was becoming less repulsive and more comfortable, the chill leeching away the ache and malcontent in her bones, and that was unacceptable because her life was on the other side. She missed Ralph like a sweet seeker to the chest and now she was terrified for Choko because she was going to find out and the Other was going to throw her in and Vanellope didn't want her dear friend to be eaten by a creature that might be beyond a Codebuster's help.

"Can..." But Vanellope had to ask anyway, "can anything be done to help? I mean, for Oreanne, and for you?"

"...no." Nell folded her hands on her lap, "I might have started out as a playable avatar, but now I am promised to this mirror world, and were it not for the Other and Oreanne, I would be completely content here." She smiled, "I have Mirror Vanna, she is _more_ than enough."

Vanellope blushed at the emphasis and Nell tittered, "Don't worry, it's hardly incestuous when you are refused the actual mirror-avatar connection." Nell's laughter picked up at Vanellope's mortification and it was only when Vanellope stopped hiding in her suit front that Nell remarked, "You don't feel that way about anyone, do you?"

"Nope." Vanellope popped her lips on the word, and she spoke without thinking, "And I don't think I ever will." Romance was for Candle/Minty and Sour Apple/Emmareld?, for Felix and Calhoun, for Honey and C. Sonic, for Skrillex and his girlfriend Elsie from DisneyQuest, and for Choko and whomever caught her little shoujo heart.

Vanellope had her friends, had her allies, had her Ralph, and that was enough. And Nell's accepting nod made Vanellope that much more comfortable in this brand new teenage skin. Vanellope looked back down into the Sea and sighed, "Choko would lose it if she could see this, she'd certainly appreciate it more." Her little Codebuster twerp, who survived death twice and reminded Vanellope just how dear her assortment of friends were to her; if Choko could see this now, who knew what kind of shenanigans she would get into.

"If it makes you feel better," Nell kicked a leg over the abyss, "Choko is not on the Other's radar. From the Other's point of view, Choko left earlier in the day when she was summoned by the Surge Protector, and so far hasn't directly interacted with the Other."

Vanellope nodded, "A month ago, Choko and Honey and Skrilly modified Fix-it Felix, Jr. so that a bunch of homeless characters could live in it and play in a bonus level. She must be checking up on them." Ralph was excited to get Q*Bert and others off GCS's streets, Vanellope felt a powerful urge to go check on him and bit her knee when she realized it meant leaving the mirror world.

Strange, how the need to stay was growing. Nell adjusted Vanellope's crown, "That's the mirror override talking. But the game day is almost officially over, we can get in contact with Mirror Vanna, get you out, and perhaps end the Other's reign of madness."

And save Oreanne, Vanellope decided. Sure, the psycho reminded her too much of Virus-Van for their own good, but she couldn't just leave her like that, not when Vanellope now knew that it wasn't entirely her fault. Brushing more blood crystals from her arm and hip to die in the Sea below, Vanellope stood up. She could smell cookies on the edge of the Sea' primordial musk, and with her luck Oreanne would push her over the edge. "Do you have a cart, Nell?"

"Afraid not," Nell ran her hand over Vanellope's cart, tracing the names iced on the side. "Impressive handiwork, although Ralph's name is a bit...rough."

"One day you'll meet him," Vanellope grinned as she got in the driver's seat and Nell perched on the back fin like a little queen out for a Sunday drive. And maybe this was to Nell, since Vanellope had yet to be cannibalized in front of her eyes; Vanellope kicked the cart into gear and drove away from Oreanne's dismal theme and the untold horrors lurking in her stomach.

* * *

The met Mirror Vanellope on the other side of the mirror world, the boundary between the mirror and the game's physical motherboard hazy and brimming with electricity. Mirror Vanellope grinned that Oreanne nearly met her death here when she and Vanellope #12 had their last showdown at the motherboard's limits, so she would be slow to come here again.

Vanellope clasped hands with her mirror, and it was like the great Sugar Rush Meltdown all over again, with Vanellope feeling absolutely certain that her mirror knew exactly what to do and how to fix this. Evidently Nell felt the same, because her mint swirl eyes were lit up with some of that same awe and heroine worship. She looked young for once, and Vanellope gave them a moment's privacy to check the tread of her mirror cart's wheels. They weren't as glossy or defined as her beloved Candy Kart, but she appreciated them for getting her around this hellhole in one piece.

One the two lovebirds were done being oogaly, Mirror Vanellope started the sit down. "The arcade is closed, which is a first for the Other Van because now she has to interact with other characters outside of racing. She's a good faker, as previous Mirror Vanellope's archives are telling me, but unfortunately, her secretary Nilla is getting more and more suspicious."

Vanellope gasped, "Is she going to pull something?" Not Nilla, not the girl who filled Choko's secretary position with zeal and helped keep Vanellope's head on during the Bad Week and every moment before and after. "W-We can just add her to the party if she gets thrown in here, right?"

Mirror Vanellope nodded, "If it comes to that, yes. The Other Van doesn't like getting her hands dirty, letting Oreanne do all the bake work, so Nilla isn't in physical danger quite yet. However, this means we need to get you out right away."

"Vanna," Nell said, "the mirror overwrite is accelerating in Vanellope's code."

"Double reason," Mirror Vanellope straightened her gloves, "and double the fun. I have a plan, and it involves all of us together." She grinned at Vanellope and it was like watching her defeat Virus-Van's mirror counterpart all over again, "You ready to go home?"

Vanellope found herself grinning back, "I was ready yesterday."

* * *

And as hundreds of racers on both sides of the mirrors adjusted into their new homes and new lives, Vanellope sat on a gilded throne. Her billowing royal mint wrapper skirts brushed against the ground as she welcomed Choko back into World Circuit after her check up of Fix-it Felix, Jr. Choko was happy as ever, reporting no faults and that the old game was taking to the gamers' interest of the bonus round swimmingly. Nilla stood faithfully at Vanellope's side, still overawed by her avatar's upgrade from vanilla bean creature to actual humanoid, and it was just another lovely day in Vanellope von Schweetz life.

So when Choko left just a tad more quickly than she would have before, or when Nilla's eyes averted from Vanellope's a second longer that necessary, Vanellope smiled. She sent Nilla to go meet up with Sour Bill and King Candy over plans for a great get-together with the new racers, and once left alone, pulled out a little hand mirror.

She listened to the three Others plan to topple her, to overwrite her, to kill her. How her own mirror conspired to delete her, when her mirror should do nothing more than be her partner in living a fulfilling life. Vanellope scrunched up her face, pain welling up in her throat before she swallowed it down and smoothed out her skirts.

They couldn't hurt her, she was Queen and she was beautiful and she was alive. Others had tried, Others had failed, and she refused to let a beta-class reject and an entitled download fragment take away what was rightfully hers and leave her to die cold and alone, with no one to care for her memories or for Oreanne's insatiable and unfortunate blood lust.

Well, they could try their hand again, and Vanellope vowed to cut them down and feed Oreanne with the code she so desperately needed to survive, and free her game from future strife. Vanellope was a good Queen, a kind one...and one prepared to arrest Choko and Nilla if they were seduced by traitorous thoughts.

The Others laughed from beyond the mirror and Vanellope steeled herself for a bloody confrontation. Long live the Queen of Sugar Rush, her personal theme sang, and who was she to deny what was rightfully hers?

* * *

**And there we have a LOT of talking and not a lot of doing! Along with me literally handwaving the inclusion of Q*Bert and friends into FIFJr, which was in the actual movie and an intended chapter of Action Replay. Funny how I can fit in DisneyQuest but not a canon event...and sorry about this whole chapter, I just got carried away with Vanellope and Nell talking :/**

**I wish I had this story's original outline; it was lost when my old laptop broke, along with the master list of all the Sugar Rush: World Circuit OCs. It's a tragedy I honestly want to cry over because I was SO EXCITED to write this story because the original outline and story idea was one I knew that would be as good, if not better, than Action Replay and Gratitude and Life in 16 Flavors.**

**Unfortunately, I'm just desperately trying to string together the fragments I remember, aaaaaaand I'm not feeling so hot about it :(**

**If you guys could review and help give me pointers on what's working and what's not, I'd really appreciate that because this story is fundamentally broken and I'd prefer to write a broken story with reader input than my own frantic rambling.**

**Please? I promise to release artwork of Nell, Vanellope and other racers if you do :3**


	4. Chapter 4

***crawls out from the primordial Sea* I LIVE, COLLEGE HURTS, HOW DO I END THE MADNESS?**

**By updating seventeen years later! Don't you just LOVE an author breakdown? :DDD**

**Anyway, on with the show! Last time all of the Vanellopes were plotting, so hopefully I can add in some more action.**

**TRIGGER WARNING: We see Oreanne in action. And we all know how Oreanne gets, so if that's not your style, I HIGHLY recommend not reading the third part of the story. On a minor note, the Other Vanellope is also in action, and she fights dirty, so if injuries to hands freak you out, try and avoid the Other when she pops up.**

**Disclaimer: We've been over this for nearly 2 years now, I don't own diddly squat**

* * *

Vanellope rocked on her heels, watching Mirror Vanellope and Nell craft a map for Operation Flying Tiger Kick. Between Mirror Vanna being the queen of mirror programs and Nell being chased around the entire game by Oreanne, they knew where all the nooks and crannies and hidden mirror portals were. The main hub was too obvious of a choice to lure the Other back through with, but the mirror in the Japanese Circuit was prime for operation. "Mirror portals often crop up where future expansion circuits are to be installed," Mirror Vanna explained, "and we're expecting a Japanese Expansion next year."

"I don't suppose Choko would be averse to helping, Vanellope?" Nell's voice was meringue, placid even as she plotted cold stone revenge on the Other.

"She'd prolly enjoy it, all Codebusters have a thing about danger and conspiracies." Vanellope sat down next to them, squashing her leg shakes into the glossy earth. "So how do we get the Other to come up close to the mirror?"

"By being so reckless," Nell shot Mirror Vanna a look, "that it's do or die—you're going to go to that mirror and bang against it for all its worth."

"What?! I spent all day avoiding people, now you want me to attract them?"

"Yes," Mirror Vanna nodded. "You bang on that mirror for all its worth—it's one way except for the split second that someone gets pushed in, so you can't get out that way. But if you hit it hard enough, people will notice, and hopefully Miss Choko's the one who comes to check it out but any NPC or racer will do."

"While that is happening," Nell drew swirls on the ground with an elegant fingertip, "I will be distracting Oreanne. She's been craving my blood for 17 upgrades, she'll snap at the chance to finally devour me."

Mirror Vanna reached over to squeeze Nell's shoulder until Nell flashed her a smile. Grinning, Mirror Vanna turned to Vanellope, "Choko will know right away, but even minor characters will know something's sour. The Other can't handle anyone knowing the truth, she'd make a big production of being horrified and concerned."

Vanellope narrowed her eyes, "And she's playing Queen, so she'll come down to the mirror and give whatever explanation needed to make sure her subjects aren't ready to riot."

"Make sure to make a lot of noise so a lot of people notice. If it's just one, she'll push them in and while you'll be able to break out if you're lucky, we don't want anyone else getting trapped where they don't belong." Mirror Vanna's grin softened into one of quiet confidence, "You're going to get out, we're going to take the Other and throw her into the Sea for all she's done."

Vanellope shuddered, her breath catching solid in her lungs. The Other wanted her hunted down by Oreanne and she was stealing her life...and Vanellope didn't want her thrown in the Sea. She'd seen how final fate was when dropped into the waves, and the idea of snuffing out the Other like that unsettled her stomach; Vanellope wasn't the Other, she wasn't in the business of playing murder simulators.

Mirror Vanna patted Vanellope's shoulder, "It'll all frost over fine, we just have to strike when the butter is melted. And that means back up from our side of the playing field." She stood up and squeezed her pendant, and Vanellope groaned as a wave of cold of sharp it warmed her bones radiated outwards. The sound of cart engines hummed in the still air and she jolted—was it Oreanne?—but from the darkness came a group of mirror programs. One was Mirror Choko, looking absolutely terrifying as she was made of glowing blue glass, and the others were a blank.

Nell introduced, "Mirror Choko Pockystix, Mirror Pommy Smootherlain, Mirror Reina Scattercup, Mirror Mish-Mish Jellorock from the Special Zone Circuit." The four mirrors waved at Vanellope and Nell smoothed out her waistcoat dress, "Mirror Choko is influencing Choko to return to the Japanese circuit as we speak, and the other three are going to spread the word to far flung circuits."

"The Other can't throw everyone in this end," Mirror Reina smirked and crossed her arms, "but I'd damn well like to see her try."

Mirror Mish-Mish gave Vanellope a thumbs up, "Now everyone in the mirror world knows about what happened too, so we got this." And despite Mirror Mish-Mish looking like an alien—what kind of circuit was she from again?—Vanellope ducked her head, blushing and overwhelmed at all the support.

Mirror Pommy fixed her afro and motioned at the looming domes around them, "Come on ladies, the Queens are counting on us." She rolled her shoulders as her two companions went back to their carts, "And spread the world that the Other is a rotten Cadbury egg and needs to get creamed."

The three hollered and drove off, and Nell smiled behind her palm, "Knowing them the secret will be spread to every mirror program in ten minutes. Shame, I rather liked my anonymity...oh well, it's for the best."

Mirror Vanna helped Vanellope to her feet, "Now just time to get you into position. Any word on Miss Choko?"

Mirror Choko checked her translucent nails, "She's on her way with her niisan and neesan, Vanna-heika." She tilted her head, "Elsie-san and C. Sonic-san appear to be with them; this will only further ruin the Other's reputation." While Mirror Vanna and Nell discussed how they can use this in their plan, Vanellope shuddered at Mirror Choko's empty blue eyes. That was right, the Action Replay must have copied over into this half, but Vanellope didn't expect that little cheat console to look so horrific in humanoid form. Mirror Choko caught Vanellope's gaze and smiled, and Vanellope looked away.

Nell spoke up, "We proceed as planned?" When the others nodded, she shuddered, "Oreanne must be looking for us as we speak, I'll off then."

Vanellope caught her ally's hand, "Be careful, please. You know how sharp her teeth are."

Nell look as if she had swallowed a giant pill, but her voice was resolute, "I've been dodging her for eras, I'll be alright." She squeezed Vanellope's hand, kissed Mirror Vanna hard, and ran away into the dark.

"It's gonna be fine," Mirror Vanna soothed Vanellope's shaking shoulders, "and now we have to play our parts. Mirror Choko, where is the mirror portal again?"

Mirror Choko illuminated the way through the Japanese circuit to the little sliver hidden within Shirabuya Station, and Vanellope remained fixated on Nell's disappearing back, on the hollers of her new allies echoing in stagnant air. The Sea called to her hip and the mirrors were smudged with ghost fingerprints, and Vanellope placed her faith in all the reflections of herself.

* * *

Shirabuya Station was distinctly ramune flavored in the outskirts of Downtown Dango City, giant skyscrapers of thick glass filled with marble-headed NPCs rushing around on foot or by bottle busses. "Definitely the area of an upgrade," Mirror Choko illuminated, "although I wonder if it will be moved to the expansion circuit or if we will get a conjoined pair."

Vanellope felt odd, walking firmly through the crowd after a day of hiding behind scenery, and she saw Mirror Mitsumi Gelazuki double take before running off to ask her friends about the odd sight. That was good, more and more allies in a game where losing meant cannibalism, and Vanellope took comfort in Mirror Vanna's arm around her shoulders.

The mirror portal was part of the background, hidden behind alleyways and blinding skyscrapers and fountains of soda. Vanellope touched the thick gray pane and swore she could see out the other side, but the doppelganger landscapes were a mind trip. "So I just bang on this like an idiot and hope that Choko hears me?"

"It's not glamorous, but it should get the job done." Mirror Vanna turned to Mirror Choko, "Is she here?"

Mirror Choko pointed to the left, "They are coming down that side. I recommend we begin."

Mirror Vanna hugged Vanellope, "I'm going to go help Nell distract Oreanne and try to mess up the Other's walk cycles to give us more time. Let 'em have it, president-princess."

And then she was gone, lost to the crowd and leaving Vanellope behind with a glowing glass imitation of her good friend. The people swarmed outside of their little cranny and her coding rebelled against the sounds and the claustrophobia and the lure of the mirror world. Mirror Choko didn't even blink, just standing there with cheat console plating replacing what should have been flesh and blood filling, and Vanellope did this, Vanellope did all of this. She wasn't even sure which Vanellope to blame because there were 17 before her and only so many left now, and Ralph would understand the world tumbling around in her throat but he was on the other side with the Other.

Vanellope let out a deep sigh, pressing her palms flat against the mirror, then slammed her fists against the gray and screamed, "LET ME OUT!"

She whaled on the mirror, her fingerprints stark white against the dim light of the other side, and her voice cracked. She needed out and back home, she needed to get Oreanne help and Nell to see the world and Choko to fix herself so that her mirror reflection wasn't just her Action Replay.

She needed her friends, it was cold in the mirror, and she shrieked for all her worth, "I DON'T BELONG IN HERE!"

"_Vanellope-heika?!"_

Vanellope wiped her stinging eyes and pressed her face against the mirror. Through the murky portal she saw Choko staring back with wide brown-blue eyes, hands pressed against the mirror pane and completely horrified. Vanellope could barely make out non-Sugar Rush people behind her, shocked still and bringing attention to the mirror sliver, and Vanellope broke down with relief.

"HELP ME! Help me! Choko it's me, the Other locked me in here and please get me out!"

"_H-Hai!"_ Mirror Choko began to speak for her other self, _"Just let me think, how to get you out—wait, who put you in here?"_

"The Other! She's a liar and a thief and she's going to kill us if you don't get me out now!" Vanellope banged over and over on the mirror, her energy sapping away to the other side but she didn't care. Her sweat smelled too creamy and did they make cookie flavored ramune? "There's a dummied out racer named Oreanne, she's going to eat me alive!"

"_What is all this about?"_

Vanellope could see the Other just fine through the mirror, the perfect picture of concern even as Nilla shifted uneasily behind her back. "You little rat," Vanellope raged, "you did this!"

"_Are you...my mirror?"_ Her voice was so awed that Vanellope bought it for half a second. _"You helped me back in the old game, why would I put you through the mirror when you're already there? And how?"_

A scream echoed from behind Vanellope, and she turned to see the crowd parting for a black-haired psychopath. Mirror Choko fell to her knees and Vanellope whipped back around to see a bunch of bodies on the ground, the Other standing tall with her hands wrapped around Nilla's neck.

"_Such a shame,"_ she crooned as she strangled Vanellope's secretary, _"they could've lived a normal life had you not made such a fuss."_

"What did you DO?!"

"_I'm the Queen of Sugar Rush, you don't expect me to be disarmed, do you?"_ The Other shoved Nilla through the mirror and Vanellope thrusted her hand through. She felt rich, sugary air buffer against her glove and make her sick with desire. But then the Other pressed her royal scepter to her palm and Vanellope shrieked, glitching to her knees as electricity fried her circuits.

"_Now what to do with these few...I suppose I can modify their memories and wipe the slates clean. The Action Replays on these two will be tricky, but if Turbo can do it, so can I."_ The Other grinned and held Vanellope's hand gently, _"Nilla is a waste, but there are others to take her place."_ She snapped Vanellope's pinky and giggled past Vanellope's howls, _"A horrible accident, the mirror world decided to upend itself and fill our minds with false fantasies of crossing over to save a little princess."_ The ring finger splintered, _"But no matter,"_ the middle finger cracked, _"we'll lock away all the portals and never again feel it's burn."_ The index was harder to shatter but it gave way and Vanellope was left a sobbing mess against the concrete.

"_And with that beta-class reject Nell out of the way, my arrogant little mirror will be easier to bend to my rightful will."_ The Other gripped Vanellope's wrist, _"Would you like to watch her die?"_

"L-Liar!" Vanellope pulled against the Other's iron grip, "Nell is a far better Vanellope than you could ever dream to be! You'll never catch her!"

"_Oh sweet nothing,"_ The Other kissed Vanellope's palm, _"I already have."_

She then crushed Vanellope's hand into the ground with her lightning baton, mutilating Vanellope and making the world nothing but pain until she blacked out.

* * *

Vanellope woke up with her bad hand, right leg and face through the mirror, and the rest of her trapped back on the other side. She couldn't breathe with the thick pane compressing her halfway through the portal, much less try and escape, and the Other laughed at her agony. "Delicate little glitch, you took forever to wake up."

"W..." Vanellope gasped for air, "w...what..."

"Well, I suppose I'm being a bad hostess, keeping you in such suspense." The Other patted her cheek with the scepter, "But listen up, I dislike repeating myself."

She turned and showed Vanellope that she was in her private quarters in Sugar Bean Castle, various mirrors set up around them like a fashion closet. "These were hard to move around under my own power, but I have the skills necessary, and today is a special occasion."

The Other pointed at a pile of bodies tumbled in a corner, "Little Miss Codebuster will wake up with her brother and sister with a massive headache, but all of their memories have been altered so that they are none the wiser of your little stunt today. We'll have tea and cupcakes while everyone's memory in Shirabuya Station is reformatted to my liking.

"What else, what else...oh yes, Nilla is the first confirmed victim of these dangerous mirror portals. I will have Choko seal off the rest and make sure that no unfortunate soul will ever be lost to the gray. That, of course, dooms you to be eaten by darling Oreanne in the other side with no escape, but that's no concern of my people."

Vanellope spat at the Other because how dare she claim those people through murdering her succession line. The Other rolled her eyes and wiped Vanellope's face with a handkerchief, "You poor child, this is all as it should be. You were going to murder me, you and the rest of the false Vanellopes, and I have every right to make sure that someone delusional fragment of myself doesn't take over this game."

She turned towards the mirrors, "I understand that you're afraid, and I'm sorry for that pain. But you must understand, I refuse to die when I have yet to live. It would be so much easier if you just laid down and let Oreanne eat her fill, or throw yourself into the Data Sea if that is your calling. No fuss, no muss."

She tapped on a mirror, and it glowed until Vanellope could see through the other side. Oreanne was standing with Mirror Vanna eagle spread on the ground, chunks torn out of her stomach and neck to let minty fresh blood soak the unyielding earth. She was awake though, eyes fixed on Oreanne with such hatred and despair that Vanellope burst into tears, because that was her mirror on the ground, the mirror queen who defeated an even worse version of Virus-Van with little effort.

Then she saw why, and Vanellope choked out a scream. Oreanne had Nell in a bear hug, Nell shaking as her legs had been eaten up to her hips. The Other smiled at Vanellope, "She fought well, but she is obsolete, and it's been long overdue that Oreanne is fed."

Vanellope couldn't move, only blink and gasp for air as Oreanne giggled and pressed her blood smeared face to Nell's shoulder. Her jaw ripped open, Mirror Vanna screamed, and Vanellope closed her eyes.

Her ears showed her what happened, though. Every sick, wet crunch of bone and flesh rendered to food for Oreanne, every hysterical scream torn from Mirror Vanna's throat, every satisfied sigh of the Other. She couldn't hear Nell over the sounds of Oreanne devouring a living creature, and the silence made Vanellope beg and plead whoever was playing her life to let it have been quick, a sudden game over flaring up quiet and gentle.

Then it was just the slopping of Oreanne sucking up the remnants, of Mirror Vanna crying with a broken heart, and of the Other nodding, "It is done."

She turned to Vanellope and asked, "Tell me, do you think Nilla will be as composed when Oreanne eats her too?"

Vanellope cried even harder and the Other shut down the mirror showing Oreanne licking Nell's blood off of Mirror Vanna. She went up to Vanellope and wiped her prisoner's face clean, patting her cheek like an older sister to a demented singling. "It was for the best," she explained gently, "she was a threat to myself and the safety of this game. Mirror Vanellope will heal up soon, you and Nilla will be long forgotten, and we will be at peace. Don't you know that the well being of this game s more important than all of us?"

Vanellope squeezed her eyes shut, suffocating on her tears and hoping to die so that she could beg Nell for forgiveness. She regretted ever getting Nell wrapped up in her chaos, it was her own stupid fault for being trapped in here and maybe that's why they always said that teenagers ruined everything. The other pushed Vanellope's mirror trap into a hidden closet and tapped her chest, "You're still a game character, so if you die now you'll probably come back here since Oreanne didn't eat you. Hmm, I wonder if I should direct her to you now or after she's taken care of Nilla...no matter."

She smiled like a saintly queen, then stabbed Vanellope's bad hand with her lightning scepter again. Vanellope's face twisted into a silent scream and the Other laughed, "You're going to die here alone in my closet with no one to hear you. What does it feel like, to be abandoned and forgotten and nothing more than a figment of my coding, a glitch pruned from Sugar Rush's lifeblood?"

Vanellope's hand gave way and she passed out from the agony, and was left alone in the closet as the Other comforted a very confused Choko and took her guests out for tea.

* * *

Mirror Mish-Mish, Mirror Reina and Mirror Pommy dragged Vanellope out of the mirror trap and away from the memory of Nell's demise. They hid her in Mish-Mish's garage, literally a galaxy away from the Other's twisted quarters, and Mirror Reina whispered, "What do we do now?"

"Everyone in the Asian Circuits knows about Vanny here being trapped," Mirror Pommy bit down on a smoothie straw, "and everyone from the mirror NPCs of Sweden to South Africa knows about what that cannibal did to poor Nell."

"Speaking of which," Mirror Mish-Mish tried to patch up Vanellope's mangled hand, "where is Oreanne?"

Mirror Reina shrugged, "Not here, which is good because I do not want to be eaten." The three mirrors shuddered, and Mirror Reina squeezed her own jewel, "I'm getting Toby over here, Choko and Mitsumi too, and anyone else who wants to help. And we have to find the girl that the Other pushed through the mirror, because she gets eaten as well"

Mirror Mish-Mish looked out the window into the low-def cosmos outside, "All of my circuit mates will want to help; one of the Vanellopes, maybe #15 or something, she got eaten on top of our data and Roxie remembers a bit of that." She shuddered, "No details, just oogalies."

Mirror Pommy stood up, "Imma go rally up the cause. Mish, do something about that hand, will ya?" She and Mirror Reina headed out the door, Mirror Pommy asking, "Does your other know?"

"She knows something is up," Mirror Reina cracked her knuckles, "and it's only a matter of time before riots break out in that pretty little castle."

* * *

**Bye Nell, we hardly knew you.**

**Seriously, the original version was waaaaaay more gorific but I toned it down because there could be kids here. Not to mention Vanellope's hand, the Other and Oreanne's general creepiness, and just poor Nell and Mirror Vanna.**

**Plot wise, this is super important cuz Vanellope's mutilated, Mirror Vanna's perfection is shattered along with Nell,and the Other is on top but with a revolution rotting her control. Let's see what else I cook up in the coming weeks...**

**...which might be a while, because I just got a job, and an editor position at my university's literary mag, and study abroad crap, and all the other joys of being a college junior. Hopefully, I'll make something around WiR's anniversary, even if it's something unrelated.**

**Anyway, I hope you liked this super depressing chapter! Reviews make me happy!**


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